PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS OF AMERICA IS NOT DOWN WITH ANTI-SEMITIC BAND POKER FACE

We haven’t spoken much about the band Poker Face in recent months, but since members of the band decided to bitch and whine about OPP to our friends over at Lady Liberty’s Lamp, we say screw it and will now proceed to rip into their asses. Truth of the matter is we really should not have given them the reprieve in the first place. Poker Face is a perfect example of not just how racist and anti-Semitic the teabaggers can be, but how conservative activists have been over the past twenty years or so. The arrests of the Hutaree Militia has them on pins and needles because of their associations with them, but in their quest to justify themselves, they are touting more reputable associations that frankly are a little ticked off about it. We don’t believe Poker Face over the years has been all that forthcoming about their political beliefs with those they played for, and we damn sure don’t believe that if they were the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) would have them sharing a stage with rappers and alt rockers during one of their conferences. PDA has made it clear to us that they do not support Poker Face, despite how many times lead singer Paul Topete has touted the time they performed for them. So perhaps they should stop making mention of it.

One People’s Project

In the past few weeks since the Hutaree Christian Militia was arrested by federal agents on sedition and other charges, the anti-Semitic band Poker Face has found itself in the spotlight since their music has been featured in Hutaree-produced videos, and the Hutaree features a link to the band’s website. The band has been attempting damage control ever since, putting out press releases and touting a history of working with everyone across the political spectrum, but one of those organizations they claim to have worked with, the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) is denouncing the band.

“Poker Face promotes a strict adherence to Constitutional government and resistance to tyranny through music using poignant and often times controversial lyrics,” A statement about the band’s association with the Hutaree notes. “The band has performed in support of Presidential and Congressional candidates from the Libertarian, Republican, and Reform Parties as well as events sponsored by the Progressive Democrats of America and the U.S. Marijuana Party.” While Poker Face has indeed has a history of such performances, there is also a history of those they have performed for not being aware of its anti-Semitic activism. Among other things, the band is known for promoting Holocaust denial, with a special section on its website’s forum titled “The Holohaux & the neo-religious CULT of Holohauxianity”.

Lead singer Paul Topete, who has appeared on the Hutaree Facebook page’s friend’s list, is also a writer for the American Free Press, which is published by longtime anti-Semitic activist Willis Carto, and has written a eulogy on the band’s MySpace blog for author and American Free Press editor Eustace Mullins, known best for his 1968 book The Biological Jew where he claimed that Jews “drink the blood of innocent gentile children” and stated that Nazism is simply “a proposal that the German people rid themselves of the parasitic Jews.” Topete wrote of Mullins, who died of a stroke on Feb 2 at the age of 86, that he was a mentor to him and a “great American” who “exposed the many many crimes of the criminal Jew who is running America into the ground for the sake of Israels benefit first and only.”

The Progressive Democrats in particular are shocked. On January 22, 2005, Poker Face performed at a concert held during the organization summit that year along with rappers Trick Daddy, Wil B. Swole, Nina B., Keaton Simons Rebecca Cooper and The Hint. At the time, Poker Face presented themselves as pro union Democrats, according to show organizers, not revealing the strong roots they had laid by that time among the right, including performing for the neo-conservative group Free Republic during an anti-President Clinton rally in Washington DC on Halloween, 1998, and assisting in the organization of the July 4, 2009 tea party protest there as well.

With Poker Face continuously using their association with PDA to justify their standing with the public, PDA are none too pleased. “(It’s) fair to say PDA does NOT support Poker face and the politics that brings them to the tea party,” PDA Executive Director Tim Carpenter wrote in an email to One People’s Project.

It is believed that Poker Face will be involved in a tea party protest this week, although they have not made any public announcements to that. And it seems at least Paul Topete envisions the tea parties to become the foundations of new extremist groups. On April 13, he posted an article on his forum about how members of the Oklahoma Legislature and tea party leaders would like to create a new volunteer militia to help defend against what they called improper federal infringements on state sovereignty in light of the federal health care bill being passed, even hoping to get legislation passed next year to recognize that militia. “Interesting Developments,” He writes leading off the article. “More and more people are waking up.”

Meanwhile, it has since been reported that when the Hutaree was raided, federal agents found a book of Hitler’s speeches and a copy of white supremacist William Pierce’s novel the Turner Diaries.